


Some Things You'll Do

by Willowe



Series: Romance is Boring [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aromantic Tony Stark, Fluff, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 06:38:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11179137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willowe/pseuds/Willowe
Summary: Jim gets called in to help the Avengers, which really means he gets an unexpected chance to spend time with at least one of his partners. Too bad Tony's run ragged with both the mission and SI business but, hey, Jim will take what he can get.





	Some Things You'll Do

**Author's Note:**

> Some short, sweet Tony/Rhodey fluff because I always need more of these two in my life and it gave me an excuse to try to writing from Rhodey's POV for the first time.
> 
> Title comes from "Love Love Love" by the Mountain Goats. (The full lyric, which is my favorite and which I really think describes Rhodey's feelings in this relationship, is: "Some things you'll do for money, and some you'll do for fun, but the things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one.")

It’s nearly six hours after Jim reaches the remote coastal island that the Hydra base is finally taken. Steve and Tony have been on the ground for almost two days, Natasha and Sam just over one. Clint got taken out of the fight early, with a head injury and strained wrist that made anything other than holding down the Quinjet impossible, and the location and layout of the base made the Hulk all but useless in this particular battle.

“Hell of a time for Thor to be on Asgard,” Jim grumbles to himself from within the privacy of the War Machine helmet. Even with him in the fight they could have still used the extra aerial support today, especially after Tony’s right-hand repulsor was taken out of commission.

Most of the remaining Hydra agents are either dead or managed to escape the base during the two-day stand-off, but there are a few being guarded by Natasha and Steve as they wait for transport for the prisoners. Jim watches Tony land beside them and notices the way he’s favoring his left leg, hard to tell with the armor unless you know what to look for.

“JARVIS, is he injured?” Jim asks.

“Scanning now,” JARVIS says, and after a moment he responds, “Severe bruising to the left leg. Minor burns, lacerations, and bruising on the right hand and forearm. Minor laceration above the right eyebrow, however there is no indication of a head injury.”

Jim flies down closer to where Tony is standing, now in conversation with Steve although with the faceplate still down. From this angle he can now see the dent on the front that probably caused that laceration on Tony’s temple, and the scorch marks decorating the entire right side of the Iron Man armor. Jim’s engineering know-how might not be on Tony’s level (but then, few people’s skills are) but he knows enough about the armors to know that the one Tony is wearing is probably scrap at this point. 

He lands next to Tony just as he says “...refine the parameters a little, make a few adjustments, but this is hardly a failure, Cap. You’ll catch up to him eventually.”

Steve sighs and says, “I know. And thank you, Tony, for doing this. I know it’s probably not your favorite project…”

“Don’t mention it,” Tony says. There’s a bit of an edge to his words that Jim isn’t expecting. Natasha picks up on it too, if the way her mouth tightens is any indication, although she doesn’t seem surprised by it like Jim is.

If Steve notices the bite in Tony’s voice he, at least, doesn’t show it. “Still, thank you. I’ll let you get out of here. I’m sure you have plenty to do back in New York and you’ve done more than your fair share here.” Tony doesn’t even put up a token protest at being the first one sent back, which is almost more alarming to Jim than anything else.

Steve turns to Jim and extends his hand, which Jim shakes. “Colonel. Thanks for the assistance. I don’t know if we would have turned this fight around without you.”

“Eh, you would’ve figured something out,” Jim says, but only because it would be bragging to agree with Cap’s assessment. With Thor, Hulk, and Hawkeye all out of the picture and Tony taking as much damage as he had the Avengers were well and truly fucked before Jim showed up.

“Do you need Rhodey to stay here, or can I take him with me?” Tony pipes up. “I need to start working on repairing the gun that got damaged on his armor.”

“We’re good here,” Steve says. “And I’ll send word to the Air Force, let them know that you’ll be in New York for a few more days until the War Machine armor is repaired.” That’s a better show of gratitude than any thanks Steve could give, and Jim appreciates it. He’s out of New York and away from Tony and Pepper more than he likes. A few extra days mean a lot.

The only problem is that the War Machine armor doesn’t have a damaged gun.

Jim switches to a private comm line as he and Tony take to the air. “Okay, what’s wrong? We both know my armor doesn’t have any major damage to it.”

“Navigation systems got taken out in that last attack before we took the base. I need to follow you back to the Tower, I can’t get there on my own,” Tony tells him. 

That sort of damage is nothing to sniff at, but it’s almost more alarming that Tony is admitting to it without any hesitation or prevarication. Now that it’s just the two of them talking Jim can tell that Tony sounds absolutely exhausted as well. Jim isn’t surprised by that but it does make the prospect of having Tony follow him all the way from Maine to New York with no navigation a fairly unpleasant one. But Jim knows that trying to get Tony to take the Quinjet with the others would be an exercise in futility, so this is the only option they have. 

Jim takes it as slowly as he dares, ignores Tony’s grumbling about flying like a grandpa, and eventually they do make it back to the Tower in one piece. “Can you even get out of that armor by yourself?” Jim asks as they bypass the roof landing and head for the underground parking garage with access to the workshop.

“No,” Tony admits with a sigh. “Damn faceplate is jammed, I can’t even raise it, and I think it dented the helmet clasps too. Right arm is gonna be a pain to get off too.”

“Metaphorically going to be a pain, or physically?” Jim asks as he lifts his own faceplate.

“Haven’t decided yet.”

It doesn’t take Jim long to get out of the War Machine armor, but getting Tony out of the Iron Man suit is a whole different story. He opts for getting the helmet off first, knowing how claustrophobic it can get in there especially when JARVIS’s systems are damaged. He works slowly but eventually the helmet comes free with a slight _pop_ and he can see for the first time the dried smear of blood on his temple and the dark circles under Tony’s eyes. Circles that are far too pronounced to just be caused by two days on a battlefield.

The rest of the armor comes off easily after that, even the remaining pieces of the right arm, and when the last bit is finally pulled away Tony stretches and groans loudly as his entire body cracks. “I have never been happier to get out of the armor, I swear to god,” he says, although it comes out sounding more like a mumble than actual words. “I haven’t been able to lift the faceplate for the last day, _fuck_.”

Jim turns the helmet over in his hands. “I thought you fixed this weak spot before.” He distinctly remembers Tony fixing it in the War Machine armor at least, and he’s going to be royally pissed if Tony hadn’t fixed it in the Iron Man armors as well. 

But to his surprise, Tony says, “I did, but that’s an old model without that particular upgrade.”

“What happened to the newer models?” Jim asks, frowning. He already knows he isn’t going to like the answer. 

Tony points to the far corner of the workshop, where a pile of incomplete armor pieces is sitting on the workbench. Jim had noticed it when they first walked in, but it’s only now that he realizes that these aren’t pieces for a new armor but old scraps that are being stripped of anything still useable. There’s pieces from at least one, if not two, Iron Man suits over there and everything is covered in scorch marks, scratches, and dents from bullets. 

“Damn, Tony. What the hell sort of missions have you guys been having?” Jim asks. 

Tony shakes his head. “The missions haven’t been too bad. I just haven’t had the time to build a new suit, so when one gets damaged I have to either reuse it with the damage- which results in it being completely fucking destroyed- or use an older model.”

If that explanation was supposed to be reassuring it really, _really_ missed the mark. “What have you been doing that you haven’t had the time to-?”

“Look Rhodey, honeybear, sugarplum, no offense but I’ve been living in that suit for two days and I really need to shower right now,” Tony interrupts. “Shower, and eat, and then pass out for at least twelve hours. Okay?”

_I haven’t even been able to lift the faceplate for the last day_ , Tony had said and Jim realizes just a bit too late that that means Tony hasn’t been able to _eat_ anything for the last day either. “Sounds like a good plan to me,” he says, forcing his voice to stay calm even though he wants to yell at Tony- out of fear, or anger, or a combination of both, he isn’t quite sure. Tony always manages to bring out the worst of his protective instincts. “I’ll order food and meet you-”

“In the penthouse, because once I go upstairs I am not coming back down,” Tony interrupts, pointing sternly at Jim.

And Jim can’t argue with that at all. He stops at one of the guest rooms for a quick shower of his own, although if Tony is open to the company he’d rather sleep upstairs with him tonight, and has JARVIS place orders at Tony’s usual favorite take-out places. Once up in the penthouse he gets everything they’ll need for the night: two blankets, folded neatly at the end of the couch, a large bottle of water for each of them, and Star Trek queued up on Tony’s TV.

The food arrives just before Tony reemerges from the bedroom, limping slightly and still favoring his left leg, and although he certainly looks cleaner he doesn’t necessarily look _better_. His right arm is wrapped in bandages and he all but collapses on the couch next to Jim, head tilted back and eyes closing with a sigh. 

Jim nudges him slightly and says, “Hey, don’t fall asleep on me now, you need to eat.”

Tony just hums and, without opening his eyes, asks, “You know that feeling when you go too long without eating a real meal and the thought of putting any food in your stomach makes you nauseous?” 

“Yes,” Jim says. Tony’s not the only one who’s used to pushing himself too far on missions. “That’s usually a sign that you need to eat something anyway.”

Tony groans and it sounds more pained than theatrical. Jim reaches over to help him sit back up and even though Tony mutters, “I don’t need any fucking help,” he doesn’t actually push Jim’s hand away. Jim knows Tony is more than capable of taking care of himself, despite what the press and half the country seems to think, but even the most competent people have a breaking point and Tony seems to have reached his weeks ago.

When Tony is about as vertical as he’s likely to get he sighs, scrubs at his face with one hand, and says, “Give me whatever, I don’t care what I eat.”

Jim passes a pre-prepared plate over to Tony, piled high with a little bit of everything, and he’s completely unsurprised when Tony picks at the food but doesn’t eat any of it. “What’s been happening that’s eating up all your spare time?” Jim asks as he grabs food for himself. He hopes the conversation might distract Tony enough to get him to eat without realizing it. 

“The fucking company, what else?” Tony picks up a pair of chopsticks and starts poking at the mu shu pork on his plate. “We’re finally finalizing the acquisition of LC Tech after- god, how long have we been going back and forth on this now? Two years?” He shakes his head. “Pepper’s been handling most of it, but my name’s still on the company and I own the majority, so I have to help with the mess too. Goddamn meetings and paperwork and- _ugh_.”

“Where is Pepper, anyway?” Jim asks. Last he had talked to her she was in New York, but that was a few days ago and it’s unlike her to not meet Tony after a battle.

“California,” Tony says and Jim has to bite down on the spike of disappointment at that. Damn. He has leave coming up in May and he’ll see her then, but it would’ve been nice to spend time with her now too. The three of them don’t get the chance to be in the same place at the same time quite as often anymore and he’s not a fan of that.

“Which, incidentally, is where I should be now too,” Tony continues. “Except Cap called me in for the mission because his usual sidekicks were out hunting down different leads.”

There’s so much in that comment that Jim just doesn’t understand. He loves his job with the Air Force, don’t get him wrong, but it’s hard not to feel like he’s missing out on huge chunks of his partners’ lives when he’s not around. Deciding to tackle the Stark Industries things first- and making a mental note to come back around to whatever is going on with Captain America later- he asks, “Why do you need to be in California?”

“Malibu R&D.”

_That_ Jim understands and he curses under his breath. “I thought you took care of that you and Pepper cleaned out the company.” He doesn’t need to specify _after Stane_ , and he’s careful to leave that part unsaid- whether for Tony’s benefit or his own, he doesn’t know anymore. 

Jim knows Stane took the arc reactor out of Tony’s chest. He _knows_ , and there are some nights that Jim still has nightmares of reaching the workshop too late, finding Tony sprawled out on the floor dead instead of struggling to back to his feet. Even after all these years, hearing Stane’s name spoken aloud still makes his vision white-out with adrenaline and anger. If the man hadn’t died in the arc reactor explosion, Jim knows he would have killed him himself.

“We did, we kept Hoffman on as the director because he changed his act and the department started producing good work- as long as I stayed in California to oversee it, of course.” Tony takes a few small bites of food and Jim stays quiet, letting him eat. He doesn’t need to push Tony to share this particular story and some things are more important right now.

It’s a few minutes before Tony picks the thread of the conversation back up. “When I relocated to New York more permanently everything went to shit. Designs started coming in last-minute, work was getting sloppy… Hoffman blamed it on the people working under him, fired a few of them and brought in replacements, and things would get better for a bit and then slip again.”

“You still think Hoffman’s the problem?” Jim asks. Tony had made a comment to that effect a while back, but Jim hasn’t gotten any updates on the situation in recent months.

Tony nods. “Has to be, but we can’t find any proof and Pepper’s scared to fire him without solid justification because any bad press right now could kill the acquisition. I’ve been trying to gather what information I can but no one is saying anything about anything. I don’t want to think they’re all incompetent- I have Tamsyn Draper in that division and ze’s the best goddamn engineer I’ve hired in _years_ \- but something’s not right.”

Jim swallows his mouthful of food and points his fork at Tony, saying, “Going to California won’t do you any good, if no one’s talking anyway.”

“Yeah, right now I’m less concerned about the ongoing departmental investigation and more just pissed the fuck off at the deadline they missed,” Tony says. “Big one, too, all my eggs were in their metaphorical baskets and- look, okay, I'm trying to modify some of the Avengers gear to market for self-defense and first aid-”

"You're _what_ now?"

Tony glances over at him and Jim can only imagine the horrified look that must be on his face because Tony rolls his eyes and clarifies what he said with, "Not actual weapons but things like- like the Widow's Bites. Dial way back on the voltage, dress up the exterior, and you've got a weapon for self-defense disguised as a piece of jewelry. Or taking the fabric for the Hulk's pants and re-engineering it to work for medical uses. I've created so many things for SHIELD and the team that it seems wasteful to not rework my designs for civilian purposes."

That makes a lot more sense, and Jim can easily see how excited Tony is about these ideas. It's clichéd as hell but his face always lights up when he's talking about an engineering project he's passionate about. Jim fell in love with Tony partially because of that excitement, and even if he's not "in love" with him today it still makes him smile to see it.

"Why give the projects over to R&D at all then, if you’re the one who developed the tech first?" Jim asks. _And if you clearly want to work on it yourself_ , he thinks, but doesn’t say that part aloud.

Tony makes a face. "I don't have time. I'm knee-deep in paperwork for the LC Tech acquisition along with Pepper and the Board is making grumblings again about wanting to market the arc reactor."

Jim swears that his heart stops for a moment at that. “Thought they had given up on that one.” The destruction of the Malibu arc reactor when everything went down with Stane had scared the Board away from any reactor tech for a while, but every now and again they come back around to it and it’s always a terrifying prospect.

“They’re never going to give up on it.” Tony reaches out and grabs a slice of pizza and an eggroll, and snags one of the water bottles for himself. Now that he has some food in him he looks slightly more alive, with a little bit of color back in his cheeks that help make the dark circles under his eyes a lot less prominent and a little less worrying. “Especially not since I have the New York reactor running beautifully. And they're talking a big talk about the humanitarian effect it could have- primary power source for hospitals, things like that, which makes it damn hard to push back on this."

"Have you tried pointing out how bad it would be for the wrong person to get their hands on a full-sized reactor?" Jim asks. 

"Do you think they care?" Tony counters. "They just want to make a profit. I'm working on a different generator, same concept but with less chance of it being turned into a WMD in the wrong hands, and I'm hoping that'll shut them up, but..."

"But you have to design the damn thing first," Jim says. It’s suddenly very obvious why Tony has multiple destroyed armors sitting in his workshop. "I get it now."

Tony nods. "No time to play around with my Avengers designs if I'm busy building generators. So the redesign project got passed to Malibu R&D and I was supposed to take a look at the initial concepts before this mission popped up and- nothing."

“What was up with this mission anyway?” Jim asks, because that’s a question that’s been bothering him ever since he saw the location of the Hydra base. “How’d you even find a Hydra hidey-hole that isolated anyway?”

Tony’s expression goes dark and he sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. There’s a moment where Jim is almost certain that Tony is going to lie or try to deflect the question- Tony is usually good about hiding his tells but he has no hope of being completely successful when he’s this exhausted- but then Tony shakes his head and says, “Steve had a trail on Barnes. Natasha and Sam were tracking down another lead so I went as Cap’s backup instead. We didn’t know the base would be that big until we were there and it took the others a day to get up to us, which is half the reason it took so long to take it out. And then Bucky _fucking_ Barnes wasn’t there anyway, so we went through two days of hell for nothing.”

“You took down a Hydra base. That’s hardly nothing,” Jim says and he’s not surprised when he gets a withering look from Tony in response. 

“We only knew about the base because I built a program to track Barnes’ known locations and predict where he’d go next, so him not being there really isn’t ideal,” Tony tells him.

That surprises Jim because Bucky Barnes is, after all, and understandably uncomfortable subject for Tony. Jim has to give Steve some credit; he was upfront about Barnes’ involvement in the deaths of Tony’s parents after the D.C. debacle, instead of trying to hide it from Tony to protect his old friend. But Jim will never forget getting that phone call from a drunk Tony when he, words slurred and obviously trying to hide his crying, explained that one of his childhood heroes murdered his parents on Hydra’s orders. Even knowing about the brainwashing only goes so far to help process that.

But asking Tony to code a database to find him? That crosses a line in Jim’s opinion.

And if Tony is an open book to read right now clearly Jim isn’t much better, because Tony sets aside his plate of food and slides across the couch to curl up against Jim’s side. “Idiot,” he grumbles as he uses Jim’s arm as a headrest. “He didn’t make me build the program, I volunteered to do it because he was being annoyingly mopey. So get that look off your face.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jim says. He brings his arm up, a little cautiously, to wrap around Tony’s shoulders. He’s gotten better over the last five years at reading Tony to figure out when he’s comfortable with intimate gestures, but he still gets nervous about accidentally pushing too far. 

Tony responds by snuggling closer to Jim, who breathes a small sigh of relief. “Idiot,” Tony repeats, his voice muffled by his face tucked in close to Jim’s body.

Part of Jim wants to stay in this moment, let Tony drift off to sleep at his side, the two of them curled close together on the couch. Instead he asks, his voice maybe a touch quieter than it was before, “How are you feeling about the Barnes situation, then?”

“We’re not talking about that, because if talk about that I’m going to start _thinking_ about it,” Tony says. “And if I think about it I’m gonna end up searching the kitchen for booze so I can _stop_ thinking about it, and I _really_ don’t want to drink like that tonight.” 

Jim knows what Tony means. Since Afghanistan, and the involuntary detox he was forced to go through, his drinking has been better. He can enjoy a few beers socially and not go for more, even if he always wants it. But it’s always harder for him to stop if he’s drinking hard liquor, and on a night like tonight when he’s half-dead with exhaustion Tony would stand no chance of stopping before he passed out. Jim knows that Tony will have to quit drinking altogether one day, probably sooner rather than later, but it’s hard to push his partner towards that when Jim genuinely doesn’t know if Tony would get through the anniversary of Afghanistan sober.

“Okay,” Jim relents. Tony’s talked more than enough already; he doesn’t need to pry into the deeply personal details of how he feels about Bucky Barnes right now. “You should eat some more, though.”

Tony groans. “Stop mothering, I ate already, didn’t I?”

“A few bites of pork and half a piece of pizza doesn’t count as _eating_.”

“Hey, I had an eggroll too,” Tony says, and Jim thinks he can feel Tony smile against his side. “Cut me some slack, I’ve been fighting for two days. I showered, I ate, and this is the part where, like I said earlier, I sleep for twelve hours.”

“You _barely_ ate,” Jim says, with a grin of his own. He’s mostly teasing at this point, and Tony knows it.

“But _sleeeeeep_ ,” Tony counters, drawing the word out in a tired whine that makes Jim chuckle.

“At least move to the bedroom if you want to sleep,” Jim says. 

“In a bit,” Tony counters, his words starting to slur together. When Jim looks down at him Tony’s eyes are closed and as he watches, quiet and unwilling to disturb this sudden peace, Tony’s breathing goes soft and even. Jim wouldn’t put it past Tony to feign sleep to win their mock-argument, but he doesn’t think that’s what happened here. 

“JARVIS, put on a Star Trek episode, any one, you know my favorites,” Jim says. He’ll move Tony after the episode is over because this is nice, having Tony napping against him and not in a rush to cross off the next item on his to-do list. “And send a message to Pepper, I know she’s busy but if I have a few days in the city, maybe…”

“It is unlikely she will be able to return before you must leave, Colonel,” JARVIS says as he starts up the show, and he sounds apologetic about it too. 

Jim sighs. “Yeah, I- I was afraid of that. Don’t say anything to her, then. I don’t want her to feel worse about missing me than she already will.” He knows he sounds disappointed, because he is, but JARVIS is the only one who can hear him and the AI is good about not commenting on things like that.

One day, hopefully soon, the three of them will have to take some time off together. When Jim has leave, and Pepper and Tony aren’t caught up in the legalities of the latest Stark Industries acquisition, maybe they’ll be able to get away from everything for a bit. It’s been too long since they’ve had time to really relax, and they could all use the break. 

The episode is about halfway over when Tony stirs against Jim’s side, just a little shift and then a mumbled, “You have shit taste in Star Trek episodes.”

“Excuse me? _The Corbomite Maneuver_ is a classic, Tony. A _classic_ ,” Jim says.

“Doesn’t mean it’s not shit,” Tony says. His eyes are still closed and he’s settling back in against Jim.

“I think you’re the one with shit taste in Star Trek episodes,” Jim tells him, but Tony is already asleep again. 

Jim looks down at him and shakes his head. “I am not listening to you bitch in the morning if your neck has a cramp in it,” he says, his voice soft and fond. The only response from Tony is a soft sigh as he sleeps.

Jim carefully drags both blankets over, drapes one over his own legs and pulls the other over Tony’s prone form- just to avoid any possible blanket-thievery if Tony wakes up later and needs to give himself some space- and settles in to finish his episode. When it’s done, he’ll wake Tony and they’ll both move into the bedroom to get some real sleep- he wasn’t joking about not wanting to hear Tony complain about a sore neck. 

But the couch is comfortable and Tony is a warm, familiar pressure against his side, and when Jim finds his eyes sliding shut against his will he thinks, _A small nap out here wouldn’t hurt…._ and he, too, is asleep before the episode is over.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic also serves as a prequel for the next one in the series, titled "The Thing to Fill the Void", which will be published sometime next week during Aggressively Arospec Week. TTtFtV is 60k+ words and I'm really proud of how it turned out, so keep your eyes out for that and subscribe to the series if you'd like to be notified of when that's published!
> 
> Finally, I have an FAQ & Info page set up for this series now! You can find it right over here: [Romance is Boring FAQ](http://willowenigma.tumblr.com/romanceisboring)


End file.
